On October 18, the People’s University of China’s Research and Data Center, the Capital University of Economics and Business’s School of Statistics, and the Central University of Finance and Economics’ School of Statistics in Beijing published the results of a survey called “Social Trust, a Poll on Consumers in Mainland China.” The survey examined the public’s trust in society. The results highlighted the crisis of trust in China, with inter-personal mistrust being the most prominent. On specific issues, 26% of the respondents were optimistic about the prospects of the government (properly) handling the food safety issue; 12.3% believed that big name restaurants would not use oil from gutters, and only 8.1% regarded inter-personal trust in China as high.
On the question of "whether one should help when an elderly person who falls," 64.8% of participants responded affirmatively. About 87.4% indicated that the reason why people do not assist is that they do not want to invite trouble (Ed: In the past, someone who helped an elderly woman was sued and forced to pay her medical bills). According to the poll, the results show the extent to which people do not trust one another.
Source: Beijing News, October 19, 2011
http://news.bjnews.com.cn/2011/1019/135644.shtml